Daily Commute – Canada Line

Some of us have regular day jobs, and like many of you, I commute to and from work using public transit. I used to drive every day but found that is not a very good use of my time. Driving needs constant concentration on the road, that means I cannot listen to podcast, I cannot check email, I cannot follow tweets, I cannot read books. So I abandoned driving to and from work since 2003. Although commuting takes time too, during rush hours, driving is not that much faster as long as your routine is the same.

Canada Line started running in August 2009. It is a “light-rail” system that connects Richmond and Downtown Vancouver. I call it “light rail” because each train has only 2 cars, don’t ask me why…. Since it’s operation begun, it has already reached 80% of it’s capacity. The ridership is excellent from that measurement point of view.

Since they discontinued all the buses that used to run between Richmond and Downtown Vancouver, commuters are given connecting buses between different areas in Richmond to the Canada Line stations. There are two main stations as connecting hubs; Bridgeport Station and Brighouse Station. More information of how to connect to the Canada Line can be found on the official Translink web site.

Just as I said, commuting allows me to do things that are impossible if I were to drive. Like taking photos of our lovely sunset. Pink sunset does not happen every day and we were lucky to have a few days of pink sunsets in a row. As most people who live in Vancouver would expect, rain is the default weather condition usually after Summer. So I consider us very lucky to have dry Autumn days.

What do you do during your daily commute?

Update: 2009/10/17

Found some videos of Canada Line, now you can experience it without physically trying it.